Archive for March 19th, 2010
My column on the return of Ann M. Martin’s Baby-sitters Club books ran on the Taste page in today’s Wall Street Journal as “How to Pay for Your Own Uggs.” I devoured these books when I was about 10 years old, as did basically every other girl born between 1976 and 1983. Their return can teach two useful lessons: first, that teen girls are capable of far more responsibility than most of us think, and second, that when you can’t get a job, you can make your own. The latter is good to know whether you’re 13 or 33!
Laura Vanderkam is the author of 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think (Portfolio, 2010) and Grindhopping: Build a Rewarding Career without Paying Your Dues (McGraw-Hill, 2007). She is a member of USA Today's Board of Contributors, and her work has appeared in Reader's Digest, Scientific American, Wired, The American, Portfolio and other publications.
Write to her at lvanderkam at yahoo dot com.